


Second Beginnings

by Hexiva



Series: Tropes and Tribulations (Legion fic tropes) [1]
Category: Legion (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Future Fic, Gen, Kid David, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 17:58:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19278493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hexiva/pseuds/Hexiva
Summary: David Haller is six years old. So what is he doing in a Division Three interview room, answering to Clark DeBussy?





	Second Beginnings

The little grey room is cold, and quiet, and David is afraid. 

He’s hiding under the table, his hands wrapped around the chair leg, staring at the door. Yesterday was his fifth birthday. There was a party. His dad made him a cake. And then he woke up the next morning and he was standing in a field that looked like a battlefield and people were lying on the ground and a pretty blond woman was staring down at him in shock. 

He’d panicked and run -  but they caught him, and they brought him to this room and now - what are they going to do to him? His mind is running double-time and there are whispers in the corners of his consciousness, and there’s something  _ missing  _ inside of him. It’s like the way he felt last year when he got really sick and threw up - the emptiness inside. It takes him too long to figure out what it is - King is missing. King should be here. King always comes with him, always comes to find him. Where is King?

The door opens, and a grey-haired man, with a big scar on half of his face, walks on. David shrinks back. He remembers seeing the man before, and he’s  _ scary.  _

The grey-haired man kneels down, one hand braced on the table. “David,” he says. “What are you doing down here?”

David doesn’t know what to say. After a moment, he manages: “Hiding.”

The grey-haired man’s face softens. “You don’t have to hide, David. You’re not in any trouble. We’re just trying to figure out how you wound up here. Is that all right?”

David clings to the chair leg. “Where’s King?” he demands. “King should - King should be here.”

The man frowns, slightly. After a moment, he says, “King is fine. He just can’t be here right now. You can see him later.”  **_Much_ ** _ later -  _ but he says the last bit without moving his lips, the way people sometimes do.

It’s not very comforting - but it’s not a lie, either. 

“Come out from under the table,” the man says. “Let’s talk, and then we can get you out of here as soon as possible.”

Slowly, David crawls out, and stands there next to the table. The man stands, and sits down across from him. 

“Who are you?” David asks. 

“Agent Clark Debussy,” the man says. “I work for the government.”

“Oh,” David says. His aunt Gaby works for the government. Maybe they know each other?

“David, what’s the last thing you remember?” Agent Clark asks, his tone cautious.

“The - last thing?” David asks, confused. “Before what?”

“Before we found you on the battlefield,” Agent Clark says.

  
So it  _ was  _ a battlefield. David swallows. “I - I went to sleep. It was my birthday - Mom said I ate too much cake, and I was sleepy, so I went to bed early. That was last night.” He hesitates. “Wasn’t it?”

“And you don’t remember anything after that?” Clark says.

“No,” David says. “I was asleep.” And then, urgently, “How long have I been asleep?”

Clark sighs. “You haven’t been asleep, David.” He crosses his arms, and then says, “How old are you, David?”

“I’m five,” David says. “Right?” The whispering in the corners gets louder. “I’m five, right?”

“No,” Clark says, evenly. “You’re twenty-nine.”

The world flips, and David stumbles. “No,” he says. “No, that’s not - not possible - I’m - a kid - ” He puts his hands to his face. His face is still a kid’s face, this is ridiculous, this guy is making up stories, so why does he feel so  _ sick -  _ “How?” he demands. “Who did this to me?”

Clark is silent for a moment, and then he says, “You did this to yourself, David.”

“No,” David insists. “Why would I do that?”

Clark takes a deep breath. “If you’d like to take a break, I can get you a cup of water, and - ”

“No!” David snaps.  _ “Why?” _

Clark sighs. “You did some things,” he says, eventually. “Bad things. And you were very upset. You thought you needed a fresh start.”

“Bad things?” David says, his voice shaking. “What kind of things?”

Clark is silent. And David thinks about the bodies on the battlefield, about the way the blonde lady looked at him, and the world spirals again. He stumbles back, flattening himself against the wall, his heart pounding, and he’s crying. “No - no - no!”

The room is shaking now, and the whispers are drowning out Clark’s voice. The walls are melting. 

_ He’s losing it,  _ Clark’s voice says, amid the whispers.  _ It’s time for the choke -  _

There’s an echoing  _ clang,  _ and the room stops shaking, and Clark’s voice goes silent, but David’s still seeing things. He sinks down to the ground, sobbing.

Clark approaches him slowly, like a frightened animal. “David, it’s all right. No one blames you.”

David wants to step away, to remove himself from the room with a blink, like he does whenever he’s afraid - but he can’t, something’s blocking it, and he’s hyperventilating, and - 

The room goes dark.

When he wakes up, he’s in a hospital bed, looking up at a white ceiling. The room is silent, and he feels miserable and empty inside.

Agent Clark is there again, sitting at his bedside. David looks up at him.

“What now?” David asks, after a long moment,

“We find a way to go on,” Clark answers. “One way, or another.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first of a series of short fics I'm doing for practice that apply fanfiction tropes/cliches to Legion. I've got a list from back in the LJ days, and I'm going through it in order, skipping everything that's already been done in canon. The first one was Bodyswapping, so of course I skipped to the second one: Age Regression. And here it is!


End file.
